Today I am going to tell you how to say “You are welcome” and “Welcome” in Portuguese. By the end of this post you will know why these words are so important to us 😉 Care to join me?
A little bit of Culture
Portugal is a really welcoming country. Forbes magazine showed the results of a study by InterNations, where Portugal ranked the 1st position as the most welcoming and friendly country in the world. In 2016 it had ranked 10th, only topped by Taiwan, Uganda, Costa Rica, Mexico, Colombia, Oman, Philippines, New Zealand and Vietnam. In Europe, however, Portugal had been already considered the most welcoming country for expats that year. Now, in 2018, Portugal climbed the stairs of friendliness and we are in 1st place! The researchers questioned more than 13000 people over 188 countries and Portugal was described as the country where it was easier to make friends and where locals accommodate immigrants the best. Aren’t we cool?
So, since this is the case, you can imagine, we say “You are Welcome” and “Welcome” a lot. Not only when we want to respond to “Thank you”, but also when we are welcoming someone in our house. There is even a Portuguese song called “Uma casa Portuguesa” that tells us that “e se à porta humildemente bate alguém/ senta-se à mesa com a gente”, which means that if someone knocks at our door, there is always a plate on the table for them.
Man, we are like this! And when I speak about it I get this fuzzy feeling on my belly because it reminds me of home.
So, I am sorry that I have been bragging about Portugal. I am sure there are some people who find us the most unfriendly folks, because everyone can have bad experiences when meeting the “wrong people”. However, I speak from my biased (hihi) point of view, valid as any other 😉 And, hey! There was a study backing me up!
But enough of gibberish and let us go back to the language! How do you say You are welcome in Portuguese?
“You are welcome” in Portuguese
De nada.
This would be the “you are welcome” we say when someone have previously said “Obrigado/a” or any of its variations to us. It works exactly like in English and other languages and we say it to be polite and to tell the other person there is nothing to thank for. It literally means “of nothing”, because we want to say that whatever we are being thanked for was nothing or did not cost us anything to do (even if it did…but we enjoy being polite!).
Não tem de quê!
Yet another expression to say “You are welcome” when someone thanks us for something. It means “you do not have to thank me”, or something like that. It is hard to literally translate it, but the idea is again that we want to be nice to the other person and tell them not to worry that we would do it all over again.
Sempre às ordens!
Literally meaning “always at your orders”, it is yet another way to say to the other person there is no need to thank us and that they can count on us for whatever they need.
Disponha!
In this case we are telling the other person something similar to the one above. It comes from “dispor”, and in English we can translate it as “I am at your disposal”. In fact, we are saying something like “Any time you need, you are allowed and welcome to ask me for help”.
Eu é que agradeço!
With this expression we are saying, “I am the one who thanks you”. We use it to be overly polite. It does not always mean that we have something to thank for, although sometimes it does. But we use it mainly to tell the other person that they do not need to thank us and that we are glad that things turned out the way they did. Therefore, we thank them too. Such a nice way to say “You are welcome”, right?
Ora Essa!
Yet another way to say “Oh, no need to do that”. This is almost impossible to translate literally, but if we would try it it would mean something like “Oh, that one…”. I think what we mean is “Oh, why are you doing that…thanking me”. Something like that 😉 You will hear this a lot if you pay attention to Portuguese conversations! Go for it and people will be surprised that you can say it.
“Welcome” in Portuguese
Bem-Vindo!
Used many times as a way to greet someone, it literally means “Welcome” and it is used when you want to welcome someone into the place you are. It can be your house, your country, your school…you get the picture! Use it and abuse it. People will enjoy it!
Seja bem aparecido!
This is not really “Welcome” in the literal sense, but we use it to express our happiness when we see someone that used to show up at a certain place often but that has been absent for a while. This expression literally means “Be well appeared” as in “Finally you showed up/appeared”. Sometimes people also use it to kind of tell the other person off for not showing up for so long. My grandma uses this a lot when I do not go home for a while.
Bons olhos te vejam!
It literally means “Good eyes see you”. Not literally, it’s used to tell the other person that your eyes are happy to see them. Again, it is sometimes used as a reprimand to the other person. My grandma also uses this super often. Man, I should go home more, I guess =)
Faz de conta que estás em tua casa!
When you want to make someone feel really welcome at your place, use this one. With this you are telling them to pretend they are at home. They do not need to worry about asking permission to do something around your house and they can just enjoy their time. It is the Portuguese version of “Mi casa, es su casa” that many of you might know from Spanish. Sometimes, to be funny, when we go to someone’s house we say this Portuguese expression to the owner of the house. It is a joke we make with friends or family.
Last but not least I want to share with you a YouTube-Video in which I explain once again how to say “You’re Welcome” and “Welcome” in European Portuguese.
Aaaaaannnddd this is it!
Did you enjoy it? You are welcome!! 😉
Have you ever used any of these expressions? If so, would you care to share it with us in the comments section below?
Don’t be a stranger. Bem-Vindo a Portugal!
Beijinhos,
Mia.
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Study at your own pace, pause, rewind and watch it again as many times as you want. No risk – try it out for 30 days and if you are not happy with the course you will get your money back, no questions asked.
Muito obrigado 🌹🌹💐
I have used ‘De nada’ many times , however these all are new to me and I really want to appreciate the warm behaviour of Português people and no doubt to you also.
And, Ya! I got a hunch about one funny incident related to welcome to house.
Approximately 4 years back when I was 16 I went to one of our relatives house 🏠 , ( I was sent forcefully) When I entered, one of my aunt say to me “long time to see you why you didn’t come don’t you like our house what kind of person you are”.
Me from inside, “Time to give taste of her own medicine”. I say “No walls have not been painted nicely and house is also messy”. Since then I never went.
Not because of her but because I don’t want to hear such kind of words from her and when I told this thing to my mother and uncle, My uncle said “Her brain 🧠 is filled with trash 🗑️!” 😄
Mia, as always thank you. I am learning so much from you. I loved video and sound pronantiation !
Muito obrigada. Bejihinjos
Hi Sabina,
thank you very much for your feedback.
It’s always nice to hear that my students like my articles and find them helpful =)
Beijinhos
Mia
Hi,
Thanks for this in-depth post. I never imagined there were so many ways to say “you’re welcome”! i know quite a few people from Portugal, and they are absolutely some of the nicest people I’ve ever met. Your post reminds me that context is super important when communicating in another language – there are a lot of subtleties and nuance one must take into consideration to ensure the proper expression is used in the proper context.
Thanks so much for sharing!
Norman
Hi Norman!
Thank you for your comment. I am glad that your experience with Portuguese people so far has been good. We try to be nice, really =) If you can contact with Portuguese people, maybe next time you can use some of these expressions. I guess people would be glad if you tried. 😀
Thank you very much again!
Mia
These pages are great for us and our lessons with you. One suggestion. When you do the recordings, could you say each phrase twice. Once in your normal speed and once more slowly for us students… Obrigado!
Hey Bob!
Thank you very much for your comment. Thanks for your suggestion, I will try doing that from now on!
Hope you keep coming back to my page and that you enjoy the journey 😉
Beijinhos,
Mia
Muito obrigado 🌹🌹💐
I have used ‘De nada’ many times , however these all are new to me and I really want to appreciate the warm behaviour of Português people and no doubt to you also.
And, Ya! I got a hunch about one funny incident related to welcome to house.
Approximately 4 years back when I was 16 I went to one of our relatives house 🏠 , ( I was sent forcefully) When I entered, one of my aunt say to me “long time to see you why you didn’t come don’t you like our house what kind of person you are”.
Me from inside, “Time to give taste of her own medicine”. I say “No walls have not been painted nicely and house is also messy”. Since then I never went.
Not because of her but because I don’t want to hear such kind of words from her and when I told this thing to my mother and uncle, My uncle said “Her brain 🧠 is filled with trash 🗑️!” 😄
Obrigada! This is a great guide with the sound files. It makes me realize how much different than Brazilian Portuguese the accent is — still a lot to learn!
Hello!
Thank you very much for your comment.
I am glad you liked it.
If you want to know more about European Portuguese pronunciation you can check out my other posts:
Portuguese Words Pronunciation
Portuguese Alphabet With Sounds
Greetings,
Mia.